And what a miracle of mercy is it, if our feet are kept ! Con- sider with what innumerable snares and temptations we are beset on every side, and what corruptions reign in our own hearts, ready to precipitate us into any evil : consider the deceitfulness of sin too, what pleasing and even innocent forms it will assume : consider also the malice and subtlety of our great adversary, who is going about continually as a roaring lion seeking to devour us : consider more particularly how many persons of eminence in the religious world have fallen ; a David, a Solomon, a Peter ; O have not we reason to adore our God, if our feet have been kept from falling ; more especially when we reflect, how near we have been to many grievous falls, when nothing but God's infinite mercy has held us up !
Let us look back then on these mercies vouchsafed unto us, and, from the review, let us follow David in,]
II. His determination arising from it —
By " the land of the living" we understand this present world', where alone there is any opportunity of making suitable returns to God. " The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day," says HezekiabA As long as he should live, David deter- mined, with God's help, to walk before God,
1. In a constant attendance on his ordinances — [This is particularly intended in the words of our text : twice is the idea expressly stated in the following verses '. And where should a person go to make his acknowledgments to God, but to His house, where the free-will offerings and thank-offer- ings of old were wont to be brought ? A grateful heart will pant after these public opportunities of glorifying God, even " as the hart panteth after the water-brooks111;" and to be deprived of access to them will be a source of pain and grief". David envied the very swallows their liberty of access to the house of God, when he was kept at a distance from it °. Let us shew our gratitude in the same way. And let not our attendance on his courts, after a recovery from sickness, be a mere prelude to our return to all the gaieties and follies of the world ; but let our delight be in the worship of our God on earth, as an earnest and foretaste of our enjoyment of him in a better world.]
2. Under an abiding sense of his presence —
[To " set the Lord always before us " is the sure way to honour him. Whether we think of him or not, " he is always about our bed and about our paths, and spieth out all our
1 Ps. xxvii. 13. Isai. liii. 8. k Isai. xxxviii. 19.
I ver. 12, 14, 17, 18, 19. ™ ps< xijj. 1? 2.
II Ps. xlii. 3, 1. o ps> Ixxxiv. 1—4.